Jean-François Larrieu

A painter inhabited by an invisible force. A painting that is both unique andA painter inhabited by an invisible force. A painting that is both unique anduniversal. A "whole" identified at first glance which is in fact the assembly of amultitude of elements, of entities. Entities each in their place, responding to adefined architecture, complex and simple at the same time as Life is.

Emotion

Combining maturity and innocence, Larrieu’s work resonates with both the spectatorCombining maturity and innocence, Larrieu’s work resonates with both the spectatorand the artist. No need to understand why. Emotion alone suffices.

‘‘When I paint, my entire body creates. I feel each muscle as it moves. Once thethought-process is finalized, the foundations laid, I let myself be guided by instinct;this is when I really feel free, and painting becomes some sort of automatic writingprocess.”

Larrieu loves to play with color, most often in warm and scintillating hues. It’s whatgives his work such energy and movement. The abundance of details – not at alldisturbing or confusing to the eye – brings a softened sense to the whole piece.Larrieu’s tableaux are solar. They vibrate joy and tenderness, too. They are the imageof life, sensitive and authentic.

“To create with color was always a need, almost from birth. I feel like I was born withthis quest for the beautiful and unusual, both natural and man- made.”

Larrieu’s paintings use the accumulation of an ensemble of codes, an unknownlanguage where words are triangles, circles and squares, which, when assembled,come together as an explicit and audible whole.
Larrieu’s style drifts between the abstraction of the infinitely petite to the figurativeof the infinitely grand. To explore a Larrieu is to launch on a perpetual journey ofdiscovery. The trip is never the same; we always return with a fresh look, a newemotion.

“Shapes collide together to produce a universe that’s not real in itself, but thatrepresents a painted version, a vision that is not hyper-realistic but poetic andmusical.”

Beauty will save the world

This painting is both personal and dreamlike. LarrieuThis painting is both personal and dreamlike. Larrieuuses this to deliver his message. He uses his favoritesubjects like fauna (natural and urban), ora and theocean to pay tribute to nature and all the forms of lifeshe contains. Reaffirming our heritage, returning to ourroots, to the greatest creations of man, to the absolutenecessity of the vegetal...Larrieu invokes all this andmore thanks to a unique, pictorial prose.It thus underlines and sublimates the richness of natureand the pure emotion it provides.And at a time when the planet is suffering, he also hasthe will to challenge the role of Man in its safeguard.

Du pictural au digital

Based on works from his oceanographicBased on works from his oceanographicuniverse, Larrieu has worked on making animmersive and digital version of his art: ascripted 3D video in which his marinecharacters come to life in a ballet that isboth poetic and captivating.The artist using digital technology thusshows his interest in new media where heintends to create an aesthetic andimmersive world in order to reach as manypeople as possible.

With a new film, a scripted digital creation, Reset, Larrieu offers a unique experience, a sensory immersion at the heart of the issues of ocean preservation.

Committement

Jean-François Larrieu is convinced: artists have a role toplay in society; they must feed their art with their politicalconvictions. For him personally, this takes the shape ofseveral daily activities where he’s out defending artists’rights. Grateful towards other artists who helped him in thebeginning of his career, the painter feels it’s his duty to bethere for this generation.

President of the Salon d’Automne in Paris from 1995 to2004, co-founder of Art Capital, currently President of theFondation Taylor (since 2010), Jean-François Larrieu sparesno effort in fulfilling the philanthropic goals that mean somuch to him.